Café des Arts Inspires Innovation in Kenya

Inspired by her passion for cuisine, this innovative entrepreneur started a restaurant business in Nairobi. She followed her heart straight to success by doing what she loves.

Located in Nairobi, Café des Arts is the creation of innovative entrepreneur, Susan Deiters. Her long standing passion for both culture and cuisine led her to start a restaurant that is elegantly ‘à la mode.’ Combining two worlds of talent, Susan Deiters not only fashions fine cuisine at Café des arts, she showcases ornate artistry as well.

Susan Deiters: Owner of Café des Arts

When Susan Deiters first opened her doors in Kenya a few years ago, she was not the entrepreneur she is today. At the time of starting her business she had just moved from political turmoil in Zimbabwe and was unfortunate enough to meet a difficult political situation in Kenya as well. This coincided with her entrepreneurial entrance into the restaurant industry. Despite this early setback, which affected the beginning of her business, she was unswerving in her dedication to her dream. Meeting the challenges head-on, she continued on her chosen path and has grown into a confident self-starter.

She shares this success of her entrepreneurial enterprise with her committed staff members. She believes that one of the secrets to excel in business is to co-ordinate a team of capable and enthusiastic employees. According to Susan, no company  achieves alone. It is people that build business. Together, she and her team have worked hard to meet client expectations and find the flow in restaurant management. They make sure they discuss the daily run of the restaurant to learn from past mistakes and maintain an excellent service at Café des Arts.

Adding a little something more to her business, Susan offers customers the chance to not only indulge in fine food (always fresh from the backyard vegetable garden) but fine art as well. She fuses culinary creations with artistic masterpieces that decorate the walls and garden of the restaurant. She exhibits the works of local Kenyans in the eatery to not only add pizazz to the place but to help community artists at the same time. This way, she innovatively includes corporate social responsibility into her burgeoning business and assists economic development as well. To make sure every artist gets a chance to display their work she operates the gallery on a rotational system, exposing African art to her international clientele.

For the future, Susan hopes to bring even more Café des Arts to Africa. She plans to possibly open another restaurant in Uganda or Tanzania and spread her joy for what she does. Her advice to any entrepreneur is to do exactly this;

follow what you love, what makes you feel comfortable. If you set your goals, have a vision and constantly keep your desires in the back of your mind, you can achieve whatever you set out to do.”